Do you remember walking into your favorite restaurant and being asked, “smoking or non-smoking?” Just a decade ago you could still hear that familiar phrase as smoking in a restaurant or bar was legal. Those smoking sections did little to protect non-smokers from the dangers of secondhand smoke. Voters passed the Smoke-Free Arizona Act in [...]
It’s no public health secret that tobacco use continues to be a dominant cause of preventable disease and death in the US. While the trend has been encouraging (Arizona’s smoking rate is down to 17%), there’s still much work to be done- and continued efforts to provide creative and effective ways to help adult smokers [...]
One of the most important aspects of public health is sharing effective, creative ideas with other public health agencies so more people can benefit from what we learn. Each year the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials highlights really good programs with their Vision Awards. This year, they selected 2 from Arizona to share [...]
A new report is out that provides a state-by-state comparison of a wide range of behavioral health issues. Every state has to deal with some significant challenges with mental illness and substance abuse. For example, among people 12 and older, Alaska’s current illicit drug use rate more than double that in Iowa (13% versus 5%), [...]
Our Smoke Free Arizona team published our 3rd annual ADHS Smoke-Free Arizona Annual Report 2010 this week. The report found (just like last year) that compliance the law is excellent, thanks in large part to the common-sense approach that we took when implementing the act since 2007. Over the last year, the county health departments conducted [...]
All this week, I'm talking about the five "winnable battles" in public health as laid out by the new CDC Director - Dr. Thomas Frieden. Dr. Frieden talked about focusing its strategic planning on public health and policy interventions to help win the 5 “Winnable Battles” in the next 3 years. There’s not much on [...]
Edit: Our agency does not provide free Nicotine Replacement Therapy. If you wish to receive this, please contact http://ashline.org or 1-888-55-66-222 We began running our new smoking cessation TV ad’s this month in targeted markets. They use a “call to action” format and encourage smokers to call a phone number (the ASHline http://www.ashline.org/ 1-800-55-66-222) [...]
